pitched in. what did you learn today? >> that our kids are too small to fail and deserve at least as much attention as ann romney's horse. >> there you go. >> who, as you said, got multiple times more coverage. >> nine times the press knch. >> bipartisanship not just in congress but the media as well. the fact that tod"today" show. >> it's way too early, it's morning joe. stick around, right now chuck is doing "the daily rundown." the city that never sleeps. >> he's going to shave his mustache off. have a good weekend, everybody. meeting expectations. more jobs were added in november than predicted in the unemployment rate, it drops again. for the first time in years this may be a monthly job report that suddenly doesn't have a political impact but, hey, how about an economic one? senate surprise.

south carolina's jim demint says he's resigning to run the heritage foundation. will he even have more power among conservatives on the outside? and who is on 0 the short list for nikki haley to fill the seat? and breaking news from the romney campaign. you heard me right. the final fund-raising month was an unusual press release raises a few eyebrows. causes some finger pointing and reminds us of the multibillion-dollar campaign we just went through. good morning from new york city. it's friday, december 7th, 2012. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. you should always remember this is a day that lives in infamy and if you don't know why, ask your parents or your grandparents to explain. let's get right to my first reads of the morning. as the republican party picks up the pieces and searches for the next generation of leaders, one of the conservative movements most influential icons of late and inside the senate, south carolina's jim demint, stunned his colleagues by resigning to become a full-time political

activist. in effect, the ceo of the conservative movement. just two years into his second term demint is leaving the senate to become president of the heritage foundation where he was greeted yesterday with a standing ovation. >> this literally feels like i just walked in the front door of my own house. this organization is in a position to do more to save our country than any organization that i'm aware of. >> before there was a tea party movement there was south carolina senator jim demint. he was a senate back bencher, a thorn in the side of his own party's leadership. then came president obama's election in 2008. health care reform igniting the tea party movement and then demint quickly became a leader and re hetorical flamethrower. >> if we're able to stop obama on this, it will be his waterloo. >> but demint had no significant legislative impact or victories regularly bucking the republican establishment, supporting senate

candidates close to his own view of conservatism with, of course, mixed success. >> i've been criticized by some of my republican colleagues for saying i'd rather have 30 republicans in the senate who believe in the principles of freedom than 60 who don't believe in anything. >> he was an early supporter of florida senator marco rubio. now the gop star, incoming senator cruz who tells mike lee all on the demint list. while 15 won primaries just seven are united states senators today. many party leaders, in fact, blame demint for high-profile senate losses in indiana, delaware, colorado and nevada and in a statement made yesterday minority leader mitch mcconnell said this. i thank senator demint for his uncompromising service to south carolina and our country in the united states senate. service. he probably wishes he was a little less compromising. that's how you can tell the ones

secretly happy he was leaving. you heard phraseology like that. demint leaves the senate a month after conservatives were set back by obama's re-election. demint's 2010 network was $65,000. heritage current president made over $1 million in 2010. it's also a powerful statement about where demint believes he can have the most influence as a movement conservative. outside elected office. >> i think i'm in a more pow powerful position than a single united states senator. i am looking for a place where i can make more of a difference. >> demint summed up his frustration the last time he spoke from the floor of the united states senate. >> this senator is ashamed of the way the senate is being run. we have had an entire congress of gag rules, limited debate, limited votes, limited amendments and the result has been no accomplishments.

over the last two years the senate has become a laughing stock. >> you saw that date there. it was september was the last time demint spoke on the floor. demint announced his decision not on the senate floor but on rush limbaugh's radio show. and he previewed how he may become a thorn in the side of congressional leadership, maybe more than a thorn. >> and i think it's safe to say boehner is not forcing either of you guys out, right? >> that's true. >> it might work the other way. >> you heard that, might work the other way. demint's decision means that the center of politician action in 2014 will be in the state of south carolina. three marquee statewide contests down there, two senate races and the governor's race. the fighting atmosphere of the palmetto state is legendary. throw in all of the state contests, the presidential primary season that kicks off very early in that state because it's early. and you've got yourself a humdinger down there. south carolina governor nikki haley does get the job of appointing demint's replacement who will serve until 2014 when

there is a special election. she said yesterday she could make that decision within a week. among the names in the mix, congressman tim scott, former congressman barrett, henry mcmaster who was a candidate for governor in 2010, nathan ballentine and ted pitts. now many conservatives made it clear that they prefer tim scott and are bordering on strong-arming nikki haley, trying to box her into doing it after demint's announcement. look at the statement scott himself released. quote, looking forward. governor haley will now appoint a new senator and i nknow she will make the right choice for south carolina and the nation. the question is whether haley will opt to name a place holder or someone who has the credibility and resourceses to defend the seat in the election it self. one person who could not suppress his glee yesterday telling politico he fell off the

couch when demint told him he was leaving, south carolina senator lindsey graham who has been watching his back expecting a conservative challenge in 2014. >> i met with jim demint this morning and to say i was stunned is an understatement. i think we've done a pretty good job for south carolina, at times playing the good cop/the bad cop but always trying to work together. what differences we've had have been sincere. >> demint's decision means the conservative battle is like ly o be for his seat. by the way, as if haley does not have enough options, another palmetto state son threw his hat in the ring last night. >> who will she pick? let's see, you want somebody young. somebody conservative. somebody from south carolina. maybe somebody who had a super p pac. wait a second: >> that's right. he could have a lot of fun with this. lindsey graham up for re-election, this open senate seat and then nikki haley worried about their own primary

challenges, this is quite the thr three-ring conservative circus. white house aides and john boehner's staff have pretty much shut down public communication about the financial cliff talks. yesterday an embarrassing stunt by the senate republican leader mitch mcconnell on the floor of the senate. at boehner's request senate leaders and representative nancy pelosi have been excluded from talks leaving it to boehner and obama to make a deal. though boehner spokesman michael steele tells us this morning if we're going to solve this problem every congressional leader and more importantly the white house have all important roles to play. the fact is we've heard this same thing. and that is that pelosi and the senate leaders are not in the room at first. they'll be brought in when boehner and the white house are close. mann while, back to the debt ceiling. the new republicans' main point of leverage n. a rare misstep, mcconnell may have taken some of that leverage away in a move that ended with mcconnell filibustering himself.

the president doesn't have enough democratic support, mcconnell moved to vote to permanently give the president the rate to approve the debt ceiling. reid shocked mcconnell by calling the idea of having that vote a positive development. forcing him to reject a vote he had called for himself. >> is there objection? >> reserving the right to object, matters of this controversy -- what we're talking about here is a perpetual debt ceiling grant in effect for the president. >> i guess we have a filibuster to his own bill so i object. >> is there objection to the request? >> yes. >> objection observed. i have whiplash. >> mcconnell was for a vote to grant power to hike the debt limit before he was against it. reid had the votes. that's why mcconnell did this. while democrats argued the

failure of his stunt is proof the landscape of the debt and spending has changed, republicans remain dubious that reid actually had the votes but decided not to risk it. republicans tried to console themselves by arguing boehner is their chief negotiator and can ignore the mcconnell stunt. one more thing to report in the political theater vein. vice president biden will have lunch with a group of middle americans who can see their income taxes go up similar to the photo-op, the fiscal cliff photo-op of yesterday which was the president meeting with the middle class family. now to jobs. we have something of a surprise report. jobs turned out to be up up. the jobless rate is down and the word from the government is that sandy had no substantive effect on the data. here are the numbers. unemployment down to 7.7%. the economy added 146,000 jobs, not great but good. a third of that came from the retail sector. 53,000 jobs added. professional and business services up 43,000.

leisure and hospitality up. construction, though, lost 20,000 jobs. we should note that jobs numbers were revise d downward, though, for september and october. in september it was revised from 148,000 gain to 238,000. went from 138,000 to 132,000. this month, the 7.7 is a full point lower than where we were at this time last year. so what are we supposed to make of these numbers and does the november report provide us a real sense of where this recovery is right now? let's bring in the man we like to bring in every month, the chief economist for moody's analytics. mark, i have to start with this sandy impact. the labor department specifically put out a statement saying our survey response rates and the affects ee eed states.

it did not affect estimates for november. do you believe that? >> i'm skeptical. i mean, new yorkers worked really hard and got it together gracefully given the circumstances. i suspect when we get all the data in and we get more responses to the survey that we'll get a revision down in the data but, chuck, bottom line, it feels like the job market is holding firm in the face of sandy, in the face of fiscal cliff concerns, so that's good news. >> so if you look at one of the things that struck us obviously the one negative number is construction, doeses that bounce back in a way that's maybe overdone because of what ends up being a sandy effect to the positive? >> yeah. so i suspect the construction employment numbers will get if not revised up, we'll see much stronger numbers going forward. just simply because of the reconstruction related to the storm. my guess is some of those big retail employment gains you

referred to, those where we'll see some downward revisions in the data where we'll see some weakness. leisure and hospitality type jobs would be affected by the storm and i'm not sure anyone else is picking that up. >> a year ago 8.7%. now 7.7% a. year from now are we going to be below 7%? >> you know, i don't think so. it's very surprising we dropped a whole point in a year given the economy's growth race. we're going 2%, 2.5%. a year ago i never thought we'd drop a full point in unemployment. my guess is a year from now we'll be 7.5% but one of the key reasons why is we'll get more job growth after we address the fiscal issues. i'm hopeful the labor force will pick up. we'll see more people coming in because there will be more job opportunities 6789. mark, thank you. the white house's take on the new jobs report.

the world is watching this serious situation in syria. can assad be stopped from using weapons of mass destruction. but first, a look ahead at the president's schedule today. he has no public events. no public events at all today. he's going to sign a bill but that is close to cameras but no jobs report event. i'm told that will start becoming a regular thing. you won't see the president every single friday jobs report. but we will see the vice president. all my daughter wants this year is everything barbie. have you seen our new barbie section? it's filled with all the new dolls that just arrived. ♪ it's a barbie wonderland! [ allen ] honey? here, ken. allen. ♪ [ gasps ] it's a barbie wonderland... hey, who's ken? [ male announcer ] get more barbie than ever before this holiday season. like the fashion design plates, color stylin' hair, and spa to fab barbie dolls that just arrived. all backed by our low price guarantee. from america's gift headquarters. walmart.

it is time for the united states and our allies to make it clear to assad that this is --

>> there will be drastic consequences for the government if they use chemical and b biological weapons. we're with you. >> there is a unanimous view here today that we support president obama in announcing. >> and we sure do have your back. >> well, there he was. as he squares off with syrian president assad over the threat of a chemical attack on the syrian rebels. meanwhile, rebels are trying to corner assad inside the capital potentially raising the chances that he could take desperate, drastic action. the washington editor at large for "the atlantic" and is with the new american foundation. david, let me start with you. the question on this red line, have the syrians already crossed it if they're preparing the

weapons to deliver the chemical waem weapons? is that the crossing of the line? >> it would seem to be the crossing of the line if you took what the president said in august when he gave an impromptu news conference and i think it was your question that prompted him to say at that time that if they move the weapons or if they used them, it would, i think his word was changed my calculus. >> and it was moved. exactly right. they've moved him. >> they have certainly -- it's not clear they've moved them outside the storage site although that may have happened earlier in the fall, but the big concern is that they may be preparing them for use in weapons, which is to say some of these include sarin, you have two agents you have to mix together in order to make the weapon. there are some reports that suggest that may be happening at a few of the sites. the question is, does that

constitute the kind of moving he had in mind? it would seem he did. when i asked that question at the white house yesterday, the answer i got was by moving what the president meant was by giving them to hezbollah or another kind of terror group. >> that's a different definition. and that was not the implication. >> it didn't seem that way at the time when i was listening to what the president said in response to your question. now there were two questions that came up as a result of the president's statement in august. one was would it be a message to assad that anything short of using a chemical weapon he could keep us out of there. the second one was how serious was the red line because red lines have a tendency to move. think about israel and how many times they moved the red line. >> steve, the interesting thing about this syrian situation is there could be other kcountries that decide to act militarily or there could be a coalition that does this. it won't have to be the united states alone. yesterday we had goldberg on,

your colleague at the atlantic, who reported israel is preparing, turkey is preparing. i also assume at this point the tax cutter, uae, the gulf states would participate in something like this as well. what do you know and what are you hearing? >> well, i think that's right and i think the right model to think about is libya and what you have in libya and what you may have in syria is essentially an atrocity driven strategy. in other words you get right to the edge of, you know, a benghazi wipeout or a potential real use of chemical weapons and then that drives the coalition response. i think it's highly doubtful that the qatar would take action but highly probable a calculation that involves turkey and thus nato forces were to take action if chemical weapons were to be used and i would think that despite what we may have heard about lines before, the fact is that the inside dimensions of syria are so complicated and nasty right now

that you almost have to be at near use or at use of those weapons to get the kind of actions that we're talk iing about. and it really is horrible that you have to 0 wait to see the atrocity to drive this up to a higher level of action, but there are so many that are fearful of being involved in getting inside the mess that that's unfortunately where we're at. >> let's talk about what happened and also what happened yesterday but that was across the pond. secretary of state meeting with the russian counterpart, david and steve, this is both to you. david, let me start with you. it looks like the russians are looking for a way out of supporting assad. are we there yet? >> not quite there but they're getting pretty close. the russians sniffed the decay of power faster than almost any nation on earth. the chinese are also good at that. i've come to the conclusion that at this point assad's days are numbered. now whether you measured those numbers in months or weeks, they don't know. but the russians have a lot at stake here. they're only outside of russia

naval base is in seyria. they want to make sure if there's a transition, they're involved to preserve that. >> and, steve, if the russians back out, does that mean the first action then that -- will we see emergency action at the u.n. perhaps this weekend? when is all this coming to a head? >> i think the russians keep moving in the direction they are, i do think they're there, sending all the signals that they are done with assad and so the market signals are there. i think you'll begin to see movement in the u.n. and, more importantly what's not being discussed the real contest about syria also involved iran. iran is the big proxy supporter of syria and, you know, we have this leak in "the new york times" or coverage in "the new york times" about a potential eventual bilateral discussion between the united states and iran. i think that solving syria, moving syria into a different place changes the game for all the other great powers with iran. >> i would love -- i'm out of time. i would love to get going with morsi. david sanger with egypt and morsi, is this going to be a situation, does he back off of

this a little bit because there's such an uprising? >> yeah, you'd think so but so far his public signals have been doubling down on passing the constitution that would give him these big powers. i can't imagine that's a particularly sustainable position after he saw what happened to mubarak. >> right, he wouldn't be there. >> steve, what is the role of the united states in trying to push morrissey on this? >> i think a $4.9 billion imf package. and a very narrow window morsi has to influence the economic v vector for the country. and if he doesn't figure out a way to work with other parts of the egyptian political establishment that money is going to disappear. it's all financial leverage. next the bizarre head scratching move from the romney campaign.

plus, the showdown of 2012 is upon us. we'll tell you where that's taking place. first today's trivia question. senator jim demint's decision to step down means south carolina will have two senate seats on the ballot in 2014. who was elected the last time both of south carolina senate seats were on the ballot in the same election? tweet me the answer. new prilosec otc wildberry is the same frequent heartburn treatment as prilosec otc. now with a fancy coating that gives you a burst of wildberry flavor. now why make a flavored heartburn pill? because this is america. and we don't just make things you want, we make things you didn't even know you wanted. like a spoon fork. spray cheese. and jeans made out of sweatpants. so grab yourself some new prilosec otc wildberry. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. [ man thinking ] oh, this gas.

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flavor boost, meet beef. it's swanson flavor boost. concentrated broth to add delicious flavor to your skillet dish in just one stir. mmm! [ female announcer ] cook, meet compliments. get recipes at flavorboost.com. chris christie comes to washington and the end of the 2012 election. the romney campaign is still touting numbers. this was not an accidental spam e-mail that got released into your inboxes. they sent out a release saying

the romney effort raised over $85 million from october 18 to november 26. romney's chairman, quote, romney's victory continued strong fund-raising. every dollar raised was put to use in the effort to elect mitt romney. they have a bunch of money left on hand. it is about trying to make sure when you have cash on hand you know it wasn't used. it wasn't his fault. romney's top strategist says sandy hurt them the heartest. after the storm, i never had a good feeling. not that the storm impacted things so much, per se, but these races, a race like this, is a lot like an nba game. it's all about ball control at the end. as he notes, they didn't have control of the message are or the ball. new jersey governor chris

christie met with president obama face-to-face for the first time since the two toured the state after the storm. christie was in d.c. his approval ratings have soared since the storm. he was lobbying obama for more federal aid for victims. he stopped by "the daily show" to talk about why he shifted from criticizing the president's leadership before the storm to praising it right before the election. >> it tells me people have different skill sets at different times. that's what it tells me. >> so he wasn't a leader until you needed leadership? >> maybe until he was presented with a stark opportunity to lead. >> with thousands protesting inside and outside the capitol, the republican controlled state legislature in michigan voted right to work legislation. it prohibits unions from collecting fees. critics say the move only applies to the private sector will weaken bargaining power for

unions,s supporting including reich sni rick snyder says it will make them more competitive. the home, if you will, the unofficial home, of the labor movement, is now a right-to-work state. that's going to make for an interesting 2014 state campaign there. the final race of 20912 election set for tomorrow thanks to the crazy ways louisiana does things. they have a run-off for a congressional race. it's a battle pitting the newly redrawn third district. it's republican versus republican there. well, good news on the jobs front. helping to boost the markets at the opening bell. we've been telling you the november jobs report showed 146,000 jobs added for the month. top estimates all over the place by more than 50% tempering the optimism a bit, though, downward revisions both in september and october showing employers added 49,000 fewer jobs than originally estimated. well, we'll have the gaggle here

early. get their take on the jim demint surprise, the bizarre -- well, it's less than bizarre but it was sort of like a ptsd from the romney campaign. much more. [ man ] ring ring... progresso

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time. >> within their three block radius. our friday gaggle who are all bashing me, republican strategist, former adviser to chris christie, maggie, who is the defender of new york city, senior political reporter for politico, ann reid. >> morning, brooklyn. just saying. >> she is a floridian. that's why i allow you on. come on, now. managing editor of the grio.com. fiscal cliff. mike, i want to start with you. it does seem as if there are three groups of republican thought, right? you have the conservatives saying, you know, don't relent on this. upset jim demint was critical of john boehner the day before he left the senate saying i can't believe you agreed 0 to any tax relief, where the house is trying to configure something that keeps them safe and then you have the governors. you've had others. christie thinks the same thing, this is ridiculous.

don't do this to the republican party brand. just cut this deal. don't be so stubborn on these high-end tax rates. is that the way you see it? >> i think the elections have cons 0 againsts and the electorate has chosen divided government. they expect compromise and expect it from both sides. i don't think republicans should move on tax increases without significant movement on entitlements. >> you want to get something in return but go ahead and offer it. and right now they're not offering it. >> in order to get something done, people expect to get something done. both sides have to come to the middle. elections have consequences. both sides are going to have to give. right now i think you need to see significant reform on entitlements. >> maggie, who should own the entitlement plan, though? i do feel like we are -- we know a plan will get done, right? there's a small deal that punts us and we have the debt ceiling, or there is the big deal that maybe actually provides some relief. the big deal, who should open the entitlement?

you do it, mrmt. and they're going, whoa, whoa, whoa, i'm not having this fight with my own base. >> i think that's the problem, right? in terms of who should own it. neither side, and i think this goes back to what you said, something you said, boehner has to have something to take back to his conference, right? the white house feels like he has not actually asked for anything yet. you have to ask for what you want. i, like you, am skeptical. in terms of who owns it, we'll see. >> i know the white house has been setting up the progressives this way. saying we're not budging on tax breaks. we're not going to cave in on that. but, we might end up doing something. give me a little bit of room on entitlements. i understand that's the message and the progressive message is we'll give you a little room. we don't want to give you a lot. >> if you isolate the medicare piece of it, they don't want to do anything on the individual medicare rips. maybe we could do something on -- i think the progressive

wish list would be to do something on negotiating drug prices, bringing that back from the old fight, the affordable care act. so i think there is wiggle room. i think democrats are dug in on not touching social security and i would be shocked if that even entered the conversation. >> the cpi change, something the president has offered and he's ready to do that. >> i think people want to protect medicaid, obviously, and would like to protect social security. i think medicare is the rule. >> thatour gaggle will stick ar. we'll hear from the white house officially when they can first talk about the jobs report. they can't do it until after 8:30. this sunday's "meet the press" a debate between capitol hill leaders republican congressman and the vote counter for house republicans, kevin mccarthy and the democratic senate whip dick durbin. first, the white house soup of the day, it's friday, spicy and

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fijit friends. fifteen bucks on rollback. wow! that's a savings of over 29 bucks! twenty-nine bucks!!?? and they're powered by friendship. see for yourself if you could save on the brands you want. walmart. now let's move to the big news. politic politically yesterday, and that was jim demint, haley just released a statement on filling senator jim demint's seat. it says in part, quote, i want to make two things clear from the outset. number one, i will not take the appointment myself. number two, i will appoint a person who has the same philosophy of government jim demint and i share. there you go. just out this morning. maggie, i'll let you take that first. well, that is good news if you are tim scott, i assume. >> i assume. >> she mentioned jim demint in the statement and nikki haley aligning herself with the new ceo of the conservative

movement. >> which she has to do. look, nikki haley now has something that we have described as goldman, right, without being a scandal. tim scott's name has been tossed around by conservatives, as we know. i have word from some people the ag as a place holder, where this ends up going is going to be extremely interesting. i think that demint is going to have some say in what ends up happening here. >> and what's intriguing here is there are so many interesting moving parts and you may care about this in a couple of years if you get involved in a presidential race, but you have lindsey graham here who is worried about a conservative challenger who thinks wouldn't it be great if they run for the other senate seat. haley worrying about challenges more from the business community. she would like all of the attention on the senate seat. so the incentive for haley, while on one hand don't want to make conservatives mad but would like to get the attention off of

her race. what do you do? >> south carolina politics is as tough as it comes. any state in the country. it's going to be a great duel to watch in terms of the jockeying for position but it is a great position to be in right now. you get to make somebody very, very happy. other people will be upset but then there will be numerous races on the ballot. there's a whole lot going on. >> all at the same time and the presidential primary hanging over the place. to tim scott. you have done some coverage of him. >> yes. >> i think it would be a quite obvious play that would help the republicans. it would be obvious what they're doing and then the question would be could he actually then win the seat in 2014. could he actually win it on his own. being appointed and then having to receive, having lost an election -- >> but let's -- the record of appointed senators is mixed at best. mickal bennett survived one.

gillibra gillibrand, it's not easy. the first part is never easy. >> if he gets appointed, he'll win. >> i'm with you. i think he wins. does that mean it all goes back to lindsey and conservatives walk away, all rally around tim scott. stick around. i want to get to you on the economy. to the white house now, the november jobs report showed the fifth straight month of job gains, over 100,000. a jobless rate at the lowest level in four years. is it real or is it a mirage? joining me now allen krueger, chairman of the president's council of economic advisers. good morning to you. >> morning. >> obviously this was a jobs report that beat all expectations among economists that were looking and expecting a sandy impact. the labor department says no sandy impact. do you believe in the long 0 run we will look back at this report and not see a sandy impact? >> that's an interesting question, chuck. there was an impact in terms of

over a million workers who normally work full time or part time in the reference week. so sandy did leave an impact in the data. but i think the report as a whole shows that the economy has been resilient, as i say every month when i'm on your show we're making progress. we're digging our way out of a deep hole. we're not satisfied yet. there's a long way to go. but there are signs that the economy is continuing to heal. >> is it a realistic possibility a year ago today the unemployment rate was 8.7%. today it's 7.7%. is it a realistic possibility, i know you don't like to project numbers, but that we could expect another point drop a year from now? is. >> well, we'll come out with our official projections when the budget comes out but i would say if congress does address the problems that it needs to address concerning the fiscal cliff if we had reasonable resolution type of programs that the president has been proposing to support the economy in the short run, get us on a sustainable fiscal path in the

long run, protect the middle class, we're going to continue to see progress in this economy. in fact, i would say if you look deeply in this report the retail trade sector did quite well. that's a sign consumers are feeling more confident. and the last thing we need now is a big tax increase on the middle class to affect that consumer confidence. >> to the fiscal cliff here. one of the more intriguing parts of the story has been is it actually bad for the economy in the long run if we go over the cliff, and i want to quote back to you, the congressional budget office, their review of the fiscal cliff policies and they made a projection that while 2013, if all of the fiscal cliff things and all is enacted in congress and you do nothing to stop the tax rate increases for everybody, 2013 will be bad but by 2018 and 2020 we will be a better did debt to gdp ratio than we've had in decades, that we will be running budget

surpluses and we'll be full deployment. do you believe the analysis of the fiscal cliff impact was too rosy? >> projections are very difficult. it's very difficult to take into account the effect on confidence. as i said, consumers have been confident. they've maintained that confidence. but look at what happened during the debt limit debacle a year ago august. look at how the economy came to a grinding halt at that point. >> and that's your fear that the cliff could just freeze consume earp confidence and that's something you can't right now project as an economist? >> no one wants to go over the fiscal cliff. worse would be for the president to sign a bad bill. >> all right. alan krueger, chairman of the president's counscil on economi advisers. mr. krueger, nice to see you that month. i'll see you next month, i promise. >> thank you, chuck. trivia time, jim demint's decision to step down 0 means south carolina will have two seats on the ballot in 2014. who was elected the last time both of south carolina's senate

seats were on the ballot in the same election? strom thurmond, of course, and the longest serving junior senator perhaps in the history of america, fritz hollings. senator thurmond won re-election and hollings, the form earp governor at the time, won a special to fill a seat left empty when johnston died. we'll be right back. ...so as you can see, geico's customer satisfaction is at 97%. mmmm tasty. and cut! very good. people are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. so we're taking you behind the scenes. this coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. it's not real. geico's customer satisfaction is quite real though.

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a statement today that the japanese have attacked the pearl harbor hawaii from the air. i repeat, president roosevelt says that the japanese have attacked pearl harbor in hawaii from the air. >> flashback this day in 1941, a day that will live in infamy.

the most amazing thing, when you go to visit the arizona site is the oil that still sits on top of the water. all right. maggie, i don't want to use the phrase ptsd lightly. so i apologize to those who will criticize me for doing that but getting the romney e-mail, i thought, we missed hawkinggail, all of this back and forth. they decided to tell us about the numbers. i have a theory why. they know that the first report was going to show them with a lot of money and they were trying to explain it? >> i think that's true. this is also one of the areas that they are genuinely proud of on this campaign. so i think that's why they were highlighting it. i had the same reaction on twitter last night as you did. what they didn't get into was

debt. >> what they still have to pay off. >> it's not just that, though. there's also debt in terms of what they borrowed in august. that's part of what they are paying off. i think this report is not going to be revealing as the next round of reports. >> no doubt about it. if you look at the president's campaign from '08 to owe 12, a 25, 30% increase in what it cost. so 2016, does that mean it's going to cost, to be the nominee for the president of the united states between 1.5 and $1.8 billion? >> we're never going back to the days of public financing. it's going to keep going up. you're not going to have an incumbent president this time. there are going to be two races. >> joy ann, i keep trying to tell people, it was 2000, the ad budgets for both bush and gore

were less than $150 million. this was $2 billion each side and this doesn't count super pacs. >> and it's happening as the map is shrinking. so we're compressing the number of states and escalating the costs. >> it is mind boggling. >> time to buy a tv station in tampa. >> all right. shameless plugs, maggie, you first. >> new york city. come visit. we love when you're here. >> i love it during the holidays. >> new york city is a great suburb of new jersey. you're better off coming to jersey shore. >> new jersey and duhaine. >> public policy poll, we have it. michelle obama. >> all right. there you go. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." coming up next, chris jansing. have a great weekend.

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